For a third successive year I made my way to East Meets West, and this year I anticipated something special. Rather than the usual Theatre Royal, the show was moved to the impressive IndigO2, inside, what will always be known to me as, the Millennium Dome. The unusually high level of buzz I was getting about the event, since I knew many of the upcoming performers this year, did a splendid job of building suspense at the start of the term.

Unfortunately, the show had a rather ill-fated start. Delays on the Jubilee line meant that a large proportion of the seats were empty at the beginning, which had it’s up side for those late members of the audience, as they missed part of the terrible performance of host Paul Chowdhry. Chowdrhy set the benchmark on how not to do racial comedy; with a broad range mediocre jokes about various cultures; a highly repetitive (and limited) attempt at “funny gangster speak”, a testament to Einstien’s definition of insanity; and the bizarre idea that all white people are called “Dave”. At one point, a member of the audience comically walked up to the stage after taking offense to a joke Chowdhry made about Chinese people. Every nerve in the entertainment-seeking portions of my brain (effectively all of it) were hoping he would steal the spotlight and replace Chowdhry as host, but sadly that was not to be.

Beyond that, the show was amazing as always. One major improvement in IndigO2 over the Theatre Royal was the sound system. Subwoofers that shook the thread out of my shirt and almost propelled me upwards at particularly epic moments. This complemented the dances perfectly, and brought me ever closer to leaping up and busting some of my own moves. Fortunately for the dancers, I refrained.

Highlight performances, for me, were funkology, who gave their consistently stunning display of hip hop and street dance. Dangerous also brought the heat with their award winning Michael Jackson style routine that managed to overshadow all other MJ references made by the other performers. Once again, I will mention the Light Opera Society and, once again, I have to praise the performance of Luminère who lit up the stage with his vocals. Someone really needs to tell me his name!!

It was a close call deciding who the best performance of the night was, but I have to give it to Funkadelics (choosing an Ellie Goulding track was a big factor in that decision). Very cool hip-hop dancing, stunningly choreographed, absolutely sensational.

I have nothing but respect for the Indian Society. Three years of a consistently polished, highly professional show, which you would never believe was produced by students in their spare time. Everyone involved works unbelievably hard to get everything sorted and it’s a show no Imperial students should miss. Can’t wait till next year!!

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

My unusually eventful weekend was ended with a thrilling show put on by the Indian Society and friends at East Meets West. EmW is a huge show that has been going on for 18 years now, and you really get a sense of the scale when you attend. This is far more than a tiny student-run event.

The standard, in my opinion, was much higher than last year, and that’s not to say last years one was lacking in any way. This year I was in the front row, which meant that I did lose my sense of hearing for the rest of the night, but got a great view of the dancers. I highly rate any performer that smiles when on stage, and there was a healthy handful of those in the acts. All the acts were professional, polished and p-amazing. There were also some very cool visual treats coming from the massive projector screen in the background. During the “Dancing Shoes” act, the lights turned off and the projector screen was illuminated in bright red, leaving only the silhouettes of the dancers in view. Mix hip-hop dancing with that effect and you can’t help but be stunned. The highlight of the night was, expectedly, the bhangra team, who became national champions at the last Bhangra Showdown. The biggest surprise of the night was the hilarity of Richard Blackwood. I was really looking forward to seeing Konnie Huq, who was scheduled to host the event, but disappointingly pulled out at the last minute. I knew who Richard Blackwood was, but I had fairly low expectations. He was superb! Honestly, one of the funniest and most entertaining hosts I’ve ever seen and I have a great deal of respect for his talent and ability to completely freestyle on stage at seemingly two days notice.

I do recommend you all attend EmW 2011. It’s always one of the finest student-lead displays you could hope to watch and a real testament to how hard the Indian Society and all the dancers work to perfect the amazing creativeness in their heads. Well done to everyone involved, and I look forward to you topping this performance next year

Thanks for Reading,

Chris xx